Why North Korean Soldiers Are Prepared to Die in Russia

SEOUL—Ryu Seong-hyeon doesn’t need to imagine what the thousands of North Korean soldiers deployed to the Russian front lines might now be thinking. Not long ago, he was one of them.

Ryu darted across the Korean Demilitarized Zone to freedom in 2019—a rare soldier defection. He had a profile that mirrors many of the freshly dispatched troops today: young, underfed and blind to the outside world. Before he chose to flee, Ryu remembers moving bricks at construction sites and shivering outside as he stood guard. He ate mushy rice mixed with corn. Meat was a holiday treat.

Back then, if ordered to fight with the Russians, the now 28-year-old Ryu would have given a resolute answer: “Thank you.” His rationale: “Wouldn’t the meals be better at least?”

The North Korean fighters in Russia have been dismissed as mercenaries, cannon fodder and second-rate. But what gets overlooked, former North Korean soldiers and other military experts argue, is how ready to die many of these troops are—and how eager they might be to escape grim conditions back home.

It is unlikely the roughly 10,000 North Korean troops in the Kursk region, where Russia is trying to repel a Ukrainian incursion, will turn the tide of the bruising 2½-year war. But they provide Russian President Vladimir Putin with much-needed manpower and pose new threats on the deadlocked front lines. One of the biggest mysteries is the level of resolve these North Korean troops will bring to a battle far from home and for an unfamiliar cause.

 

Ukrainian incursion into Russia

 

Ukrainian advances in Russia

Russian forces

Front-line areas

Kyiv

Area of 

detail

Rylsk

RUSSIA

Sudzha

KURSK REGION

Sumy

UKRAINE

20 miles

20 km

Note: As of Nov. 6
Source: Institute for the Study of War and AEI’s Critical Threats Project
Andrew Barnett/WSJ

 

Ukrainian officials said on Tuesday some North Korean soldiers had already engaged in combat on a small scale near the front lines. A day later, South Korea assessed the fresh arrivals had not yet engaged in full-fledged combat. The U.S. has said it expects North Koreans to begin fighting within days.

Nearly all of the troops sent to Russia—who include special-forces fighters—would have a similar set of motivations, the North Korean ex-soldiers say. They have been indoctrinated from a young age to sacrifice everything for the supreme leader. Children get urged in their school textbooks to prove their regime loyalty by volunteering to be the targets of hypothetical artillery strikes.

The troops’ deployment would be seen as the opportunity of a lifetime to bring back cash and glory to the Kim Jong Un regime. Those who die get valorized; those who survive come back heroes. 

“North Korean soldiers are convinced that they should do anything for Kim,” Ryu said.

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